


Ranma Partial

by ArielleBrix



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow, Ranma 1/2, Worm - Fandom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:34:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21952273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArielleBrix/pseuds/ArielleBrix
Summary: Instead of getting a full curse, Ranma just has a few drops hit him in a very crucial spot. It has cascading effects from there.On top of that Ranma will have to deal with supervillains and Endbringers, because life's just fun that way.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

#  Ranma Partial

(newest, sometimes unbeta'ed chapters are available at <https://lycelia.com/s/k4u> )

Author Notes: 

This is a Ranma ½ & Worm crossover fanfiction (Worm slowly folds in after first twenty pages).  
Basic premise: **skip to next line break to avoid minor spoilers**

Instead of getting a full curse, Ranma just has a few drops hit him in a very crucial spot. It has cascading effects from there. It’s a premise that I’m sort of surprised I haven’t seen before in the Ranma fandom.  
Besides the basic premise there’s a few other points of AU. It occurs pre-Worm timeline. And as far as Ranma goes, I didn’t go with the typical fanon interpretation that Ranma manages to pull off a full education during his occasional month or two of schooling thanks to his super-smarts. Instead this Ranma is thoroughly uneducated, spends a lot of time around monks that don’t speak his language, and he’s only marginally literate. But maybe he’ll grow.

* * *

##  **Chapter One**

_ Ranma _

“A panda?!” I leapt back, barely maintaining my balance on the poles thanks to my surprise. It was a job made all the more difficult when the panda went on the attack. Fending off powerful blows from the bear was nearly impossible when each strike shattered the pole under my feet. Not even my growing control over key could keep them intact against the bear’s furious onslaught.

_ ‘Pops?’ _ Suddenly the muddled warning from the guide’s broken Japanese finally made sense. The springs really were cursed. Terribly, terribly cursed. And unfortunately Pops was too stupid to have noticed yet and stopped trying to toss me in one. It was a failing that others might have blamed on him suddenly having a panda brain but I knew him well enough to guess that he was just too focused on getting me back for winning the first bout. He was getting a bit sensitive with age now that I was starting to beat him more often.

His weight and bear blubber made up for what little he’d lost in agility and before I knew it I was flying — and not under my own power.

“I don’t want to be a panda!” A cursed pool was coming up fast, even with my heightened reflexes. I tried to slow myself down but there was little that even I, greatest martial artist of my generation, could do against gravity. My ki could extend leaps but fighting gravity and the force of my pandafied father’s blow combined was well beyond my capabilities.

Instinct told me to prepare myself for the landing but my instincts had never come up against cursed water before. Despite the spring’s seeming purity I knew that at all costs I absolutely couldn’t let myself touch the water.

I circulated all the ki through my body that I could manage and flung my arms and legs out wide. My hands and feet hit the sand around the pond a split-second later. My bones and tendons creaked from the awkward position of the impact but they held, just barely. My face was so close to the water that I could almost taste it, humid air tickling my throat as I breathed in in relief.

A panda paw gripped me and for a moment I thought my victory was about to turn into bitter defeat. But instead panda-Pops flipped me back upright onto solid ground. He babbled in bear-speak incoherently but I had a feeling I knew what he was saying.  _ ‘Yeah dummy, the springs are cursed. Way to figure it out before you cursed your only son.’ _

“Yeah dummy, way to figure it out. What gave it away, your fur?” My self-censoring might need work because he nearly swatted be back towards the spring before he caught himself.

The useless guide chose that moment to pipe up again. “Honored customer almost fell in Spring of Drowned Girl! Very tragic story!”

“Girl!?” “Growf?!”

What a fate that would have been. At least a panda could still fight. How would I ever become the greatest martial artist the world had ever seen if I’d become some weak girl. Truly a fate worse than death.

I followed in a daze as the guide lead us to the cabin. Apparently there was a cure so it wouldn’t have been the end of the world but still, seriously eerie. What did being a girl feel like anyways, they hardly seemed like the same species. I hadn’t ever really talked to one but according to Pops they weren’t very smart on top of being weak and fragile. I might’ve ended up even dumber than pops if I hadn’t caught myself. “Close one,” I whispered. 

_ ‘That’s odd.’ _ I coughed and massaged my throat. My voice wasn’t normally so high. Was I picking up a cold from all time we’d spent in the mountains? Either that or it was that dreaded puberty thing I’d heard mentioned back during the month I spent at an all-boys middle school. I didn’t know much about it, but one of the older kids had his voice go all wonky and all the other boys made fun of him. Hopefully I’d be over it before we hit civilization again.

When a pot of simple hot water transformed hot water transformed my dad back into a human I just had to speak up. I was careful to pitch my voice downward though, an effort that was mostly successful. “That’s it? You cured him with hot water? Can you even call that a curse? Sounds more like a prank to me.”

“Shut up boy.” 

I was caught off guard by his renewed human speed so his cuff caught me in the back of the head. I glared at him but said nothing. Prank curse or not, I didn’t care to have another fight carry us in the direction of the springs again.

“Ahh!” I screamed ear-piercingly high as with a splash of water a panda popped back up in front of me. Panda-pops winced from the sound before trying (and this time narrowly failing) to cuff me again. 

“Cold water change back,” explained the guide.

_ ‘Woah. Not a prank curse.’ _ I stayed silent as Pops tried to get a real cure from the guide, muddling through his rough Japanese. Unfortunately none seemed forthcoming. Turning my dad into a panda for a day was sort of hilarious but this was actually sort of serious. I supposed it would give me more variety for sparring though so it wasn’t all bad. It wasn’t like we stayed long enough in most places for people to figure out his curse anyways.

By the time the guide started mentioning some nonsense about Chinese Amazons Pops had had enough. “Come on boy, we’re going back to Japan.”

“Really?  _ Finally _ .” We’d been travelling through China for a year now, and India for a year before that. It was neat to learn from so many masters of various martial arts disciplines but it would be nice to finally be able to speak to other people without relying on hand gestures. I’d learned a few words here and there but half of them always turned out to be useless when we traveled a mere hundred miles and stumbled into a new dialect of the very language I thought I was learning.

“Man up boy, you sound like a girl.”

“I don’t sound like a girl,” I grumbled.  _ ‘Wait…’  _ Did I actually sound like a girl? I was still pitching my voice down to correct for whatever was going on with my throat but it didn’t sound quite right. I wasn’t going to say that it sounded like a girl’s, especially not the chirpy high voice that so many Japanese girls seemed to favor, but it didn’t sound exactly like a boy’s either.

I hardly wanted to consider it, but was it possible I’d been cursed too? There was only one way to be sure.

For the most part I disapproved of my father’s stealing ways, but I did make a personal exception for food. And so with skill long honed by martial arts nd hunger I snatched a large spoonful of soup from the guide’s pot without his notice.

_ ‘Needs more salt.’ _ But the flavor wasn’t what was truly important. While racing after my departing father I whispered, “Testing, testing.” 

_ ‘I sound normal again…’  _ Under other circumstances that would be a good thing, but sadly this meant my suspicion was correct. I’d been cursed with a girl’s voice of all things, seriously complicating my quest to become a man amongst men. I was sullen as we plodded along a high mountain pass away from the springs but gradually I approached a sort of acceptance. It could’ve been worse after all. And if I drank hot tea more often then I wouldn’t have to worry about sounding like a weak girl. No one would ever need to know, my father least of all.

Sadly it wasn’t too long before I had to give in and take a sip of water from my water bottle. A little tickle in my throat was the only sign of the change but a few cautious mumbles revealed quite clearly that my voice had gone up an octave or two. I was well and truly cursed, and no amount of massaging of my throat was able to change it. It seemed like I wouldn’t be doing much talking until we got back to Japan where hot tea was more readily available.

Normally when on the move we kept walking well after sunset but a sudden rainfall had us stopping early as panda-Pops desperately started boiling water to transform back. Meanwhile I set off into the bushes to answer the call of nature.

Only my practice in not speaking all afternoon kept me from letting out another girly shriek as I discovered something truly terrible.  _ ‘It’s gone!’ _

I’d had it all my life that I could remember but now, inexplicably, it was gone. I didn’t know what to do or how to fix it, but before anything else I actually  _ really _ needed to pee. Without seemingly anything for it to come out of I wasn’t exactly sure how though. After a few jittery moments I squatted and hoped for the best.

_ ‘Well that, err… mostly worked.’ _ It seemed undignified though.

I was able to think a little more clearly now that I was relieved of the pressure. The natural answer came swiftly enough.  _ ‘My throat wasn’t the only thing that got cursed.’ _ Had my desperate suspension over the spring of drowned girl left me low enough that my thing had touched it?

_ ‘No. It can’t be.’ _ There was no way that this was what girls looked like under their skirts. It just looked too weird to be human. Too useless too. Dad always said girls were useless but this was just too much. I must have gotten splashed with some other spring when I was fighting Pops. Maybe a male dolphin. They were ocean animals so they had no need to point when they peed. That made sense.

I made doubly certain to ensure my gi pants were on tight before heading back towards the fire. I absolutely couldn’t afford any slips while I was like this. My dad was the last person I wanted figuring out I was cursed in such an embarrassing way. The quicker I could get some hot water and change back the better.

I barely kept myself from shouting as panda-Pops poured the whole pot of water on himself right as I came into view. Turning back was going to be harder than I thought. I couldn’t let him know how badly I wanted hot water or he might figure out that I was cursed as well. Traveling the world with my dad was starting to be a serious drag.

_ ‘I can’t wait until we get back to Japan.’ _


	2. Chapter 2

##  **Chapter two**

Days passed without me getting more than enough hot water to make small tisanes from wild mint plants. I wasn’t sure how much water Pops needed to change back to human but he always took the lion’s share to be safe.

It didn’t take long to grow tired of my self-enforced silence. I ended up taking a different tack. While my voice was like a girl’s (which unfortunately was most of the time) I pitched it as low as I could manage, and when it was like a boy’s I pitched it higher. Purposely raising my pitch like that made me feel awfully silly but it was necessary for my disguise. The contrary pitch directions kept my different voices close enough that Pops couldn’t tell the difference. Unless we found a real cure it was the best I could do for the time being.

  
  


Over the course of the week I occasionally found time to experiment when Pops was napping. Eventually I figured out that through a combination of excellent muscle control and spreading the strange folds I could pee standing up with a fair degree of success. It wasn’t perfect and I wasn’t sure I’d dare do it in any public bathrooms but out in the wilderness it was enough to get by. I felt like a small measure of my pride and dignity was restored. 

I was almost annoyed when I at last got my hands on enough hot water to change my groin back to normal and rendered my accomplishment meaningless. Well, at least until another sudden drenching rainfall changed it back.

_ ‘Well, at least I know I can go back to normal now if I get the chance.’ _ Despite seeing my father turn back time and time again I’d still been a little worried that something as simple as hot water wouldn’t be able to return my groin to its natural state.

At least my dad’s reluctance to bathe lately had allowed me to wash up alone in the rivers we passed. The stink he was starting to pick up despite all the rain was a fair price to pay for privacy concerning my condition. Not that privacy was  _ all _ that I wished for. It was clear that winter was coming. The chill waters from the mountains raised goosebumps along my skin and my nipples crinkled tighter than I thought they’d ever done before. Even in midwinter the rivers of India had been warmer than this.

Dad’s mood grew darker as we trekked closer to the coast, only his win streak in our boy vs giant panda spars serving to cheer him. I was pretty sure I could win if I took advantage of how his limbs didn’t bend quite the same way anymore but I was wary of worsening his mood further and instead fought with the handicap. Hopefully he’d cheer up soon. He’d switched from hogging all the hot water to not making any at all. Given his mood and the secrecy of my condition I hadn’t dared make any for myself.

My resolve to forgo hot water until we made it back to Japan faltered as my mood worsened as well. At first I thought it was just from spending so much time walking with a grumpy, unintelligible panda at my side. Gradually though I began to catalogue all the little ways that I genuinely felt off. I couldn’t seem to sleep right, my skin was painfully sensitive during our spars, and despite feeling terribly hungry my stomach felt strangely bloated. It was no wonder I felt irritable, but it all came to a head as the pain in my lower stomach spiked and a feeling of wetness filled my underwear.

It was the middle of the night and wolves were howling into the frigid air but I couldn’t let this go. I left my sleeping bag behind and trekked over to a nearby stream. I’d thought I had my bladder issues all worked out but I was prepared to wash my underwear if I had to. What I found when I pulled down my pants was worse than I’d imagined.

“What the heck!” Even in the moonlight it was clear that I was dealing with blood. Always a man of action, I immediately set to washing it before any panda or wolf noses could scent it. Unfortunately that didn’t solve the main problem as it didn’t take me long to realize that I was still bleeding from my new, strange anatomy.

_ ‘Am I dying?’  _ It seemed like the only answer that made any sense. Whatever part I had must’ve come from some short-lived creature that died after a matter of weeks. I needed to get hot water as fast as possible and hope it reset the process.

I left my underwear to dry, scurrying back to the camp with my hand down my pants to hold my slit closed as best I could manage against the steady leak of blood.

When I got back to the river I nearly broke the fling in my hurry but after a few tries I had a little flame going. I didn’t have to turn my whole body back like Pops did so I only set a little water in the pot so that it would heat up faster.

While the water was warming I stepped pantsless into the little stream to try to wash up. It was incredibly hard to remain calm in such a position with wolves howling in the dark and facing my potential death via magical curse but this wasn’t the first time I’d faced death. As Pops always said, the life of a martial artist was full of peril. 

The second the water seemed warm enough I cast it on my groin, water hot against my chilled and sensitive flesh. My penis reappeared for a few seconds before water dropping from my gi top transformed it back, but it was enough. I felt miles better in both body and mind. Even my mood felt better, soothing warmth replacing the headache I’d been feeling for days. It was like some vital element of my body had been restored and now it could work properly again. In some ways I felt even more refreshed and happy than I remembered feeling with normal guy parts, though maybe that was just relief from not bleeding anymore.

I started doing stretches near the fire to warm up from my dip in the river as I waited to dry. As I thought about it I realized this wasn’t the first time I’d felt so good. The first time, right before I changed back, I’d been feeling less peppy. Maybe that was just from taking a week to get my hands on hot water to use privately but despite being normal only briefly I’d felt much better once I changed back again. It seemed like whatever parts I had were only in top condition for a few days. After that it was a slow trek downwards before reaching a steep cliff.

_ ‘I guess I have to change back more often.’ _ Solidarity with my pandafied father was nice and all but I wasn’t letting it go this far again. Refreshing my changed groin every few days seemed ideal, a week at most. It was good for my health and good for my mood, I’d just have to sneak out at night again if I had to. 

After carefully drying my underwear over the fire I redressed and snuck back into my bedroll with far more optimism than I’d had in days. I didn’t like being cursed but I was learning to how to live with it.


	3. Chapter 3

##  **Chapter Three**

I’d started winning against Pops again, at least some of the time. There was a limit to how much I was willing to play to his mood and he’d long since reached it. It was really for the best that I pointed out his weaknesses anyways (with my fists). Bit by bit he learned to account for most of them and in doing so pushed my further as well. 

I was learning, much like he was. Unlike his tradeoff of human flexibility for panda strength and endurance, my changes seemed to be purely beneficial now that I’d figured out how often I needed to reset things. It was a rather slight difference but without my normal parts in the way I had a little more room to maneuver my legs. There were a few experimental twists and high kicks that I’d struggled with in the past that were now far, far easier. It was a little bonus that made me far less hostile towards magical curses. So long as no one ever figured out I had strange animal parts between my legs I didn’t mind the advantage in fighting. It was what I lived for after all.

One annoyance had made it harder to focus on practicing katas during downtimes than I would have liked. My guess that it was from all the times we’d gotten soaked over the past few weeks but I was pretty sure my gi (currently my only clothing save for a few pairs of underwear) had picked up a fungus of some sort. It made my skin itch like crazy, my chest in particular. I tried not to scratch it, scratching seemed to almost make it worse. 

By the time we reached a town I was nearly mad with irritation. If not for the cold weather I would’ve taken off my shirt days ago. I’d done my best to hold it in place whenever we were walking but even with my best efforts my nipples were swollen red and nearly bleeding from rubbing against the gi. They and my chest were definitely the worst off but my skin in general wasn’t doing very well. My growing ability with ki healing techniques helped heal the damage when I had a chance to meditate but inevitably a day of walking would reverse all my progress. I was working on walking meditation but so far my chest was too much of a distraction to pull it off. And the less said about my underwear and wedgies the better. The boxers hadn’t fit well since the change but they seemed to be getting worse by the day. I didn’t know if I was going through a growth spurt or if they were shrinking but I was about a day away from just ripping them all to pieces.

But all that was over now. We’d reached a town and it was time to shop. Not something I normally concerned myself with but I needed new clothes and I needed them now. Hopefully Pops wouldn’t mind given how many times my gi had been ripped and patched this year already, and the growing tightness of the pants. I was due for some new clothes, but if he disagreed then so be it because I couldn’t bear this anymore.

The moment he finished drinking himself to sleep in the early afternoon with a bottle of sake, I snatched our few coins remaining coins out of his pack and went to the market. Hopefully it would be enough. I wasn’t nearly as practiced at stealing clothes as food, and I’d feel guilty about it

There were a  _ lot _ of options in the rural town market. Some of it homemade, others looking like they fell off a factory truck somewhere. There was a pair of black silk pants and a red silk shirt that seemed like they would be perfect. Soft against my skin, dried quickly which was great for the outdoors, and was a reasonably strong material. Harder to patch than my gi but I was getting better at protecting my clothing from damage. Unfortunately they were too expensive for me to get them both.

After a very long process of wondering whether I should just steal them I decided to compromise instead. I bought the pants but for a top I picked a thin white cotton undershirt that was like no other shirt I’d seen before. It was too sheer and clingy to function as a proper shirt but I thought it might be enough to keep the gi from directly touching my chest anymore.

I clutched the new clothes to my chest, soft fabric a delightful relief against my hands. I wanted to change immediately but I still had one stop to make. And so with a tinge of embarrassment I moved over to what I thought was the underwear section. 

This was the first time I’d ever shopped for clothing by myself but the selection was so overwhelming that I wished I’d waited another fifteen years before trying. Some things I didn’t recognize at all. Others looked sort of like padded chest protectors. I thought I’d seen them before in a commercial back in Japan but I couldn’t quite remember what they were called. B-something? Well, hopefully my new undershirt would be enough because they were oddly expensive.

Maybe the boxers were in another section but eventually I found things that looked like the tighty-whiteys I’d worn as a kid. They were far fancier than I remembered. All sorts of different colors and designs. One even had a bear on the front which seemed rather fitting considering what had happened lately. I was sorely tempted to buy a pair but that was all I had the money for, a single pair. It hardly seemed worth it when I could instead spend my last coin on a hefty plate of rice.

_ ‘Underwear can wait,’ _ I decided. I’d just toss out my three old pairs and go without for a while. It wasn’t like I had anything down there that I needed keep in place anymore. Nor would I, until we got back to Japan. Finding hot water was just too hard while traveling for underwear to be worth buying for the occasional few minutes I had my stuff back.

After changing my clothes and grabbing a big bowl of rice with the remaining money I headed back to camp. My skin felt so much better as I walked in the new clothes that I was having a strangely hard time trying not to cry. I was sure I’d sleep better than I had in weeks tonight. It did feel a little weird not having underwear on but I suspected I’d get used to the loose feeling in no time.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four  
I’d thought that with the whole panda thing we might hitch a ride on a cargo ship to get back to Japan but Pops was resolute about having us swim. He was still sore about me spending our money on clothes instead of booze so there was no changing his mind.  
I made sure to briefly change my groin back to what it used to be before the chill sea water changed it back to what was slowly becoming normal for me. I felt the rejuvenation of a fresh change was over me, heat from within combatting the chill of the sea. I set out through the waves with long strokes, cutting easily through the surf.  
As Pops paddled along with thick panda paws I showed off a little, surging up out of the ocean like a flying fish. A little ki extended the arc to an absurd height but I didn’t put my all into it. It was still a very long swim to reach Japan from the coast of China.  
Even with the grind ahead of me I was happy to be at sea. Along with fighting it seemed that my curse was beneficial for swimming. That little bit of clear space let me really put my all into kicking with no subtle deviations. The water felt great too, streaming along my smooth skin. I figured it would feel even better if I had a swim suit. Or maybe even naked. I didn’t quite dare go that far, but I did shed my gi top after the first twenty miles. It was scratchy and falling apart anyways. My heavily worn shoes followed ten miles after that.  
‘Much better.’ I was slipping through the water with ease now. From this alone I thought I’d make better time than the swim over, and that was before taking into account the increased strength and height I’d picked up over two years of training. I’d hated the swim over but I was loving this, which was perhaps another point in favor of me being cursed with dolphin parts. One of these days I’d have to find out for sure.

Despite taking a few detours to hunt fish along the way, I finished the swim in just over a day. Last time it took around three so it was a pride-worthy achievement. Pops still had another day before he’d arrive by my best guess so I settled in to wait. We’d tossed our equipment before the swim so I set to making a camp with leaves and sticks. Thankfully it was warmer on this side of sea so I wasn’t too worried.  
Once camp was set up I set out walking the beach. It’d been at least six years since I actually spent any time on one but I reminded myself I wasn’t here for fun. Instead I was searching the beach for spare change in the hopes of buying food and a new shirt, possibly not in that order. I liked showing off my skills but showing off my abs seemed a little tacky. Wearing the sheer undershirt with nothing on over it just didn’t feel quite right to me.  
The beach wasn’t fully deserted but it was cold enough that only a few adventurous souls were in the water. A fair few more were just enjoying the beach but it still wasn’t the helter-skelter business that was perfect for finding lost cash. My worry unfortunately proved correct as in the next hour all I found was twenty yen and a few wild berries. I was sufficiently down in the dumps that I didn’t immediately decline when some slightly older boys asked me to play volleyball with them. It was the chips and salsa though that really drew me in.

‘This is fun!’ I needed to completely stifle my ki to make it sporting but that also meant that it turned out to be a fairly good workout. Not something I could do every day, but a stretch of non- ki enhanced muscles could be good from time to time.   
With some good-natured complaints from the boys I rotated off the court for a short break. Another boy that was likewise resting handed me a lemon soda that hit the spot perfectly. Between the soda and the chips I was practically in heaven. And thanks to the promise of a barbecue later with hotdogs and cheeseburgers I felt confident enough not to pig out on the chips too badly. I didn’t want to spoil the well after all, and so I made sure to savor each chip slowly rather than shove the whole bag in my mouth.  
My abnormally good manners and excellence at volleyball certainly helped, but in general these boys sure were nicer than the ones from middle school. Even nicer than the monks in training I’d met during my travels. If they asked me to play more volleyball after the barbecue I might even accept, rather than go with the normal Saotome dine and dash.  
As I sipped at the last of my soda I lingered on something that had bothered me since I reached the beach. A lot of the girls on the beach were wearing something that looked suspiciously like the protective chest covers I’d seen in China. Were they only for girls? It sure was a good thing I’d bought the undershirt instead or I could’ve ended up seriously embarrassed.

When the time came for the day to end I parted ways with the boys and said a warm goodbye. I felt like I was on top of the world after such a relaxing and scrumptious burger-filled day, at least until I realized how high my voice was when I said goodbye. Had I been speaking like that all day? It was a wonder they hadn’t thought I was a girl. I’d let my guard down without my father around but I absolutely couldn’t let this happen again.  
“Oh! A shirt!” Someone had just left it behind in the sand. It was white which would make it a pain to keep clean and it had a long, strange frill at the bottom but it would have to do. I’d mostly ignored it today since I was on the beach but I really didn’t want to walk around the city in just my undershirt.

***  
I get the distinct impression this site is gobbling some of my line breaks...


	5. Chapter 5

##  **Chapter 5**

An engagement? Really? I could hardly believe it. I was training to be the world’s greatest martial artist, I didn’t have time for girls. And that was exactly what Pops had always told me, keeping me from even talking with them let alone dating. It seemed absurd that he’d suddenly change his mind so completely and shove me towards a marriage. There was no way this could be real, surely. A prank, a test, some sort of scam for money, all were more likely than an engagement. There probably weren’t even any girls where he was leading me. Monastery number eighty-six for sure.

I kicked at random stones as I trudged behind him through the wet street. At least the rain ended his tirade about my clothes — it was a lot easier to ignore a panda’s chalkboard than shouted insults. Totally unjustified insults too. How was I supposed to know it was a girl’s shirt? And it was his fault I didn’t have the money to buy anything better. I’d kept it on just to spite him as I beat him into the sand back at the beach. If he was going to keep calling me a girl then he could go ahead and be beaten by one. That made him even  _ weaker _ than spaghetti.

For all my confidence around Pops I was rather worried about showing up to an engagement meeting while wearing a girl’s shirt. Not that I had a choice. Going in just the undershirt would be like showing up half naked. While drenched from the rain it was basically see-through. Actually, the wet overshirt wasn’t much better. Upon realizing I could see my nipples through it I hurried picked it away from my chest. They didn’t itch like crazy like they had with the gi on but the swelling and redness hadn’t gone down yet.

I sighed as the knock on the door ended predictably. Whoever opened the door screamed in fright as my stupid panda-Pops stepped into their house. I  _ told _ him he should take the time to change back to human before doing this. In his defense though it didn’t take him too too long to realize his mistake and shove me out in front of him.

In the lowest voice I could manage with my cursed throat I said, “Umm, hi. I’m Ranma.” I tried my best but I could tell me greeting did little to calm her. Whoever it was my father had brought me to meet was a little older than me, maybe nineteen. She was pretty, I supposed, but more than anything else she was normal. No signs that she was some hidden martial arts genius or a witch with the ability to cure supernatural curses. I couldn’t imagine why Pops was so set on me marrying her. Well, it could be worse. At least I wasn’t stuck in another Buddhist temple for a month. And she  _ was _ pretty.

“P-p-panda!”

Yeah, we weren’t going to get far like this. “Stupid Pops.” I kicked him back outside on the porch. “Stay out there. I’ll tell you when there’s hot water.”

Thankfully for the girl’s sanity he agreed to my plan. Just that moment though a long-haired man with a mustache rushed around the corner. “Did you say you were Ranma? Ranma Saotome?”

“Yeah, that’s—” I was cut off as he abruptly swept me into his arms. Maybe there were martial arts to learn here after all, though if so I wished Pops had given me a warning. He knew I didn’t like wrestling. Partially because grappling was so sweaty, and partially because it was a truly brutal discipline when used for real. Most of the advanced techniques caused injuries to tendons that were so bad that you might as well maim your opponent, and that wasn’t the way I wanted to fight if my life wasn’t on the line.

Using techniques I’d learned in India I swiftly escaped and then reversed his grip, holding the arm extension until he cried for mercy.  _ ‘Odd. I expected more from a grappling expert.’  _ I released him with a befuddled look, more confused than ever why Pops was so set on me marrying into this family.

“Don’t hurt my Daddy!”

I spun out of the way as some crazy chick in a gi swung a mallet down at me. Her weapon went straight through the floor, lodging there long enough that I was able to swing my foot up and hit her hand. I nailed the pressure point there perfectly, forcing her to drop her weapon as her hand temporarily lost its ability to form a grip. I didn’t fight girls, but in this case I didn’t think I was wrong to harmlessly disarm her.

Even with her weapon gone, fallen through the floor, she kept attacking. She was like a tiny enraged gorilla but I’d spent too long fighting a panda recently to let that intimidate me. I smoothly dodged all her attacks, quite unworried. She was strong for a girl but quite unskilled, telegraphing all her attacks. Dodging them until she wore herself out wouldn’t be hard, and even if she did hit me once or twice I wasn’t worried. Without the mallet to amplify her strength I didn’t think she could seriously harm me.

Eventually tiring of the game I didn’t kick her but I did very gently trip her. I crouched to look at her as she just stayed frozen on the floor, seemingly astonished that she’d lost. “Had enough?” I asked. “Your dad attacked me first, no reason to freak out.”

A third girl in a kimono spoke up then. “He wasn’t attacking you, he was giving you a hug.”

_ ‘A hug?’ _ I’d seen mothers give their children hugs before and it seemed innocent enough. Had it really not been an attack? His moustache and his big tears seemed shifty to me but I supposed it could be true. If it really was an attack rather than a hug then he was hopeless inept at it. “Oh. Well, a little warning would be nice.” She might be right about the hug thing but there was no way I was apologizing after crazy mallet girl attacked me.

I barely held myself back from striking the man as he clapped me on the shoulder for some reason. With tears in his eyes he said, “Just the sort of fighting skill I’d expect from the son of my old training buddy.”

“You trained with Pops?”

“Yes. Great days, and terrible.” His head sunk for a moment before popping back up with renewed energy. “But now it’s time to reunite the schools! These are my daughters, Akane, Nabiki, and Kasumi.”

Before he could continue, Akane cut in. Apparently her shock at being beaten had changed into seething anger. “Why are you wearing a girl’s shirt? You some sort of pervert?”

“What? No!” I’d never been called a pervert before but I didn’t like it. And while I didn’t entirely know what the word meant, I knew it wasn’t anything good. “I lost my shirt swimming over here from China. I found this one on a beach.”

“From China? Really?” asked Kasumi. From her tone it seemed like she didn’t believe me, nearly laughingly. And if there was one thing I couldn’t stand it was people not accepting how truly awesome I was.

“It’s not that hard if you’re strong enough.” Knowing that words might not be enough I demonstrated. I dropped into a pushup with a single finger, then raised the ante by lifting my feet. I could tell I’d won over two out of three from their gasps, though Akane just let out an angry snort. It would have to do. This was about the limit of what I could do to show off inside without damaging their house.

“Wow,” said Kasumi, nearly speechless.

“Sis, I think he actually did it,” said Nabiki. “Are you a cape?”

Like a cloak? What a weird thing to ask. “Nope. Just a martial artist.”

“Hmm…” Nabiki looked at me appraisingly. “So… no money for a new shirt?”

“Err, no. Not yet.” I didn’t much like admitting that I was poor, even obliquely. “And we left the rest of our stuff back in China for the swim. We’re still working on restocking.”

“The life of a martial artist is an arduous one,” said Soun. “But now it’s time for you to choose one of my daughters to marry!”

Nabiki instantly took a step back. “He wants Akane,” she said. “She’s perfect for him. Don’t you think so Kasumi?”

She bit the corner of her lip, eyes roaming over my body in a way that had me wondering if I should hide. Eventually though she seemed to come to a decision and stepped behind Akane with Nabiki. “Indeed. You hate boys and he looks as pretty as a girl. It’s perfect.”

I soured at that. She hadn’t called me weak as a girl or ugly, but it didn’t feel entirely like a compliment. Being compared to a girl at all rubbed me the wrong way. And then there was the matter of them shoving me in the direction of psycho-chick. Despite their quirks, either of the older girls seemed like angels in comparison. Better-built too. Akane was more fit but whatever weight training she was doing was poorly planned because her muscles weren’t proportioned right so that was really just another point against her. Had no one told her that it was a poor idea to focus exclusively on her biceps?

“Great,” said Soun. “It’s settled. Ranma will marry Akane.” He tried to pull us into some sort of three-way hug that I barely dodged in my shock.

“What!” screamed Akane. “I’m not marrying some no-good pervert.”

“And I’m not marrying some macho psycho-chick.” I turned around with a huff, fully prepared to walk out the door and never look back. I didn’t care what my dad’s plan here was, I wasn’t having any of it. I was leaving right now before Akane’s rage worked up high enough for her to attack me again.

Or at least I thought I was, until a certain annoying panda blocked my way out of the house. Reluctantly I turned around. There was plenty of time before the wedding, I didn’t have to skip out now. It would save me grief to let Pops say whatever he wanted to say.

“Right… Do you have any hot water I can borrow?”

* * *

chapter 7 just posted at https://lycelia.com/s/k4u  
Chapter 3 posted at fanfiction.net


	6. Chapter 6

##  **Chapter 6**

_ ‘So exhausting.’  _ Between the fainting and the tales of the cursed springs and magic being real and whether or not my Pops being half panda made me a quarter panda I was all tuckered out. Amazingly the panda curse hadn’t been a deal-breaker for Soun and he’d even offered us a guest room to stay in. 

It seemed both our fathers were strangely serious about this engagement deal that they’d made before any of us were born. Honestly I didn’t see the point, unless Pops was after the dojo. Even that didn’t make much sense considering our school of martial arts emphasized adaptability. All environments, all weather, it was all an opportunity to learn. Spending too much time in a dojo would just dull our skills.

_ ‘At least I’m getting a bath out of this.’  _ I was tempted to jump right into the warm water of the furo but I wasn’t animal so I set to scrubbing with cold water first. The walls meant that for once I didn’t have to worry about peeping strangers or jaguars so I was able to take my time. I was tempted to use soap but I wasn’t sure how they’d feel about me using theirs. I also wasn’t sure how my still sensitive skin would take it, particularly my chest and the area between my legs. I didn’t care to start itching again. The shampoo though…

After a few seconds hesitation I doled out a small portion. My hair was getting rather long lately but it was in such poor condition that it was hard to tell. My bangs were curled and snarled, and my pigtail was fraying heavily as it stretched down to the bottom of my shoulder blades. I needed the shampoo, and I was confident they’d never notice it missing.

A few minutes later and my hair was considerably cleaner, but I wasn’t making much progress on undoing the snarls. It didn’t help that every time I tugged too hard on a knot I reflexively shot ki up through my roots and made my hair super-strong. The texture was all off too. It was obvious that the swim through the salty sea hadn’t done my hair any favors.

_ ‘What’s this?’ _ An orange bottle on the shelf caught my eye. “Con-di-tio-ner?” It had been a couple years and I was a little out of practice at reading Japanese. Not that I was ever very good at it. It wasn’t like I needed to read to throw a punch. Reading was girly anyways. And ultimately a picture was worth a thousand words. There was a drawing of long hair on the bottle so that was all I needed to know to give it a try.

I sniffed bemusedly at what came out of the bottle. Very fruity. I wasn’t sure what the point was adding scent to things that were just going to be washed away. Regardless, I’d smelled like far worse things at times during our trek through Asia so I didn’t hesitate in rubbing it into my hair.

“Oh wow, this is amazing.” My heart skipped a beat as I realized I’d let my voice rise again. Thankfully a quick glance around revealed that I was still very much alone in the bathroom. I went back to scrubbing it through my hair. I couldn’t guess what was in it but it was making my hair silky-smooth. Tangles were coming apart like they were nothing. I even felt confident enough to take apart my braided pigtail, hair light and loose for the first time in ages.

The silky feeling persisted even after I washed out my hair. It didn’t feel right to braid it immediately when it was in such good condition so I tied it into a loose ponytail instead. 

_ ‘Is that me?’  _ The mirror caught me by surprise. Now that the conditioner had puffed up my hair I could see that I had even more of it than I thought. I was long overdue for a haircut, but I did wonder if Pops would let me keep it until summer. Having long hair could be handy in the colder months, especially if it was full of volume like it was now.

More than the hair, it was my face that truly surprised me. This was the first time I’d seen myself in anything other than the surface of a stream in ages and it allowed me to see something that water couldn’t. 

_ ‘Since when did I look so pretty?’ _ I could see a little of where Kasumi was coming from now, and I suspected it was even more apparent now that I was clean. I looked… shiny. Shiny eyes, smooth skin, lips pouty and red with a cute button nose. Framed by my lustrous raven-black hair I was undeniably pretty. Not like a girl though. Definitely not. I was lean, unlike the soft cheeks of a normal chocolate-eating girl like Kasumi. I was definitely a manly sort of pretty.

A glance downwards revealed familiar changes from a different perspective. “Hmm…” My altered groin looked really odd and alien up close, but from this angle it was quite inoffensive. Very neat, with nothing hanging out. I wasn’t sure that anyone else would agree and I certainly wasn’t going to show off that I was cursed, but personally I was coming around to the look of it. It was easier to fight and swim without anything hanging and now I was coming around to the aesthetics of it, at least from some angles. As curses went, maybe this one wasn’t so bad.

Going back to China for a cure could wait. For the time being I was going to treat this as a vacation and take as much advantage of the plumbing as I could. It was time now to sink into the warm waters of the furo and leave my troubles behind. And after that would come the shift back, renewed curse greeting me with a burst of warmth and energy as its clock reset.

I stepped into the family-sized furo, feeling the shift hit me as the water crept up my thighs. It was weird seeing and feeling my twig and berries hanging between my legs so soon after accepting their absence. I’d hardly had them for five hours in the last couple months since Jusenkyo and at this point I was starting to feel more comfortable with them gone. I fully intended to ignore the strangeness I felt towards them though and just focus on the warmth. Or at least I did until the door suddenly swung open.

I stared, frozen, as Akane stared back at me. She was quite naked, only the towel nervously clutched between her breasts hiding her groin from my roving eyes.

_ ‘...?’  _ What was going on here? I knew married people lived together but did they bathe together too? And we weren’t even married yet — or ever, if I had my way. But strangely I didn’t want her to leave as badly as I thought I should. There was something about the slight wobble of her chest that was strangely intriguing. I felt a stirring, a heaviness between my legs. It had been long enough since the last time that it took me a a few seconds before I placed what was happening and hurriedly covered my groin.

“ **Pervert!** ” Akane screamed and ran away.

_ ‘That was awkward.’  _ I wondered if I shouldn’t go after her to apologize or something. Nah. I’d already seen that talking with her never seemed to make anything better.

I settled into the tub, though not entirely comfortably. The thickness between my legs made it tricky to sit the way I wanted to. It was something of a relief when the water cooled another degree, just enough to shift my groin back to a more minimalist state. For some reason though I still felt a little shifty until I finally managed to block the image of Akane from my brain.

I relaxed into the water, warm water a pleasant balm to my sensitive skin. For once I was able to bathe without my nipples tensing up or my skin breaking into goosebumps. It all felt so good that I never wanted to leave. My mind though was somewhat more troubled than my body.

That thing that happened with my member wasn’t new to me. It had happened randomly over the past year now prior to the curse, often at very inconvenient times. This was the first time though that I was able to link the transformation to a likely cause. Between Akane and my recent experience with the existence of curses, it was obvious what had happened.  _ ‘She used dark magic on me.’ _

With this new revelation it was no longer any mystery why so many monasteries banned all women from their grounds. Having dark magic users around would totally screw up the chi of their temples. It was amazing that I hadn’t known about this previously. Pops told me all the time about girls being weak and detrimental to a martial artist’s training but he’d never warned me about their magical powers. It was obvious I was in hostile territory. And it wasn’t necessarily just Akane either. Judging by the interest I’d felt for Kasumi it was possible that all three of them were witches.

“Hmm…” I’d have to be careful, but this could still work. I wasn’t going to give up a vacation full of hot baths just because of a few witches. Well, at least so long as I stayed in my cursed form I wouldn’t have to worry about showing a bump in my pants. Maybe they’d give up once they saw that their spells had no effect on me.

Eventually I found the strength of will to leave the furo. In hindsight I should’ve gotten out sooner. The last thing I wanted was to have anyone else walk in while I was in my cursed form. From here on out I’d have to triple-check the lock before getting naked in here again.

It was a pain to put on dirty clothes after getting so clean but there was no other choice. I’d have to put getting a second outfit on the top of my list. Having a choice between going naked or wearing wet or dirty clothing was such a pain, especially now that I was back in a populated area and could be compared to someone other than a smelly panda.

I was drawing up one leg of my pants when I spied another possible option. Akane had left a fresh set of clothes behind in her haste to flee. She’d also left her dirty clothes behind, but I chose not to think about what that implied lest her dark magics affect me again.

Could I really dress in her clothes, I wondered. They were girls’ clothes which would make wearing them unmanly, but they weren’t  _ that _ girly. Akane was without a doubt a tomboy, her chosen shirt far less girly than the one I had now. Well, I hoped. I apparently wasn’t too good at telling that sort of thing, but at least her purple shirt didn’t have any frills. It was pleasantly soft too, enough that I could probably skip my undershirt without worrying about it itching. And the pants were just a simple pair of soft sweats, perhaps for sleeping in.

Stealing from the girl struck me as a bit off, but was it  _ really _ stealing? We were engaged and already sort of sharing a house, sharing some clothes was a small thing in comparison. And I’d just be borrowing it for a little while, just until I’d washed and dried my own clothes. With some application of my ninja skills no one would ever know.

I’d convinced myself to wear my fiancee’s clothes but the underclothes gave me pause. Skipping the chest protector was obvious. Her t-shirt was soft enough that I didn’t need it, and it was a little too big to fit me since I didn’t have those strange wobbly breasts that so many girls and the occasional chubby guy had. Her underwear though… It actually had that same funny bear I’d seen on that pair I’d liked the look of in China. And I wasn’t out in the wilderness anymore. It seemed right that I wear underwear at least  _ some _ of the time. And it was a fresh pair, always important.

Before I could change my mind I slid them up into place.  _ ‘Hmm. Not bad.’ _ The fit was very snug but not in a too-tight way. It would take some time to get used to the way it hugged me but overall it was a far better fit than the boxers I’d thrown away weeks ago.

Without giving the underwear another thought I slipped into her pants and shirt. A little pull of the draw-string had the pants tight around my waist.  _ ‘Good enough.’  _ The shirt was rather clingy but after wearing my undershirt for a few weeks I was rather used to that.

I went back in bathroom and gave my own clothes a quick washing before hanging them up on a branch outside to dry.

***

chap 10 now posted on lycelia.


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